The invention is in the field of guns, and more specifically relates to guns as used in target practice and marksmanship competition, particularly rifles.
A rifle as it comes from the factory will generally have a trigger pull of four or five pounds. When the trigger pull gets down below about two and one half pounds, the gun may become dangerous. At that point, there is such a delicate balance between off and on that the sear can very well slip under any slight jolt; such as closing the bolt on a bullet. This is highly undesirable in any situation, particularly when hunting. For this reason, a standard factory rifle, even when the trigger mechanism is re-worked by a gunsmith, will not have a firing force much under two and a half pounds of pull for safety reasons.
There are special hair triggers, and set triggers, that can be installed in the gun after removing the factory mechanism. These mechanisms can reduce the pull to on the order of two ounces. In all cases, the trigger is only made a hair trigger when the gun is already aimed at the target, eliminating the chance of accident. The second trigger of a set trigger is then set, or the safety is taken off of the hair trigger to enable the marksman to have an extremely fine touch and thus a more accurate shot.
Set trigger mechanisms and other hair trigger devices work very well, but they may cost, for example, $150.00. Taking $350.00 as a good average price for the new rifle, $150 represents a major expense compared with the purchase price of the weapon, and represents a great deal more than many everyday sportsmen are willing to spend, although they would like to have a hair trigger mechanism if such were available at a modest cost.